The Min of the Papua New Guinea Star Mountains: A Look at Their Traditional Culture and Heritage

The Star Mountains, in the New Guinea Central range, until a few decades ago were the most remote and isolated of all regions on the island. This environmentally harsh and difficult terrain was described as geographic hell, by early patrol officers in their attempt to make contact with inhabitants along step slopes rising to over 4000 metres and subject to high rainfalls of 4-11 metres. The mountain range was home to the Mountain Ok, commonly known as the Min. Until the 1960s very little was known about them or their culture – a culture regulated by a secretive and very regimented men’s cult for several hundred years. The Min are one of the only societies on the island to associate themselves with a female cultural heroine and ancestress. The purpose of this book was to capture something of the traditional lifestyle of the Min as a visual reference book for the ‘transitional’ generation of Min, in the wake of the Ok Tedi mining project, which was to significantly change the traditional lives of the people.

Publisher: Ok Tedi Mining

Date Published: 1995 (1^st Ed.)

Book Condition: Near fine hardcover in a good dust jacket showing some minor creasing, scuffing and edge wear to cover

ISBN: 998085099X